A social-conscience espionage film that has actually thought about its eco-terrorism themes beyond figuring out how to mine them for suspense, The East sends a straight-laced overachiever undercover with a violent eco-vigilante group. Director Zal Batmanglij and co-writer/star Brit Marling deliver a consistently tense, morally alert story.

Marling plays Sarah, a former FBI agent now seeking her fortune in the private sector. Her assignment for Hiller Brood, a secretive company providing undercover risk assessments for corporations, requires her to infiltrate an anarchist group, The East.

Telling her boyfriend (Jason Ritter) shes off to Dubai for business, Sarah actually hits the streets not far from her Washington, D.C., home  getting grubby with freegans and hobos while watching for someone whose political rants sound likely to produce action.

The group looks a bit like a cult, especially given the Jesus-like appearance of head strategist Benji (Alexander Skarsgard). Members like Doc (Toby Kebbell) and Izzy (Ellen Page) offer villains from their own pasts  a reckless drug manufacturer, say, whose wares injured loved ones  and decide how to get close enough to do that company well-publicized harm.

Sarah will inevitably be changed by this group. But will it be in the expected, manageable way  some sympathy is inevitable when you devote every waking moment to earning someones trust  or will she go rogue?

The actors bringing this band of anarchists to life project enough wounded, uncertain self-righteousness to distance them from the generic zealots more often seen in this kind of tale, and Marling, working behind a couple layers of role-playing, keeps audiences guessing about what Sarah actually believes.

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